Improved jib and stay connection



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JOHN E. SEAVEY, OF KENNEBUNKPORT, MAINE, ASSIGNOR TO HIMSELF AND GEORGE L. TORREY, OF SAME PLACE.

-IMPROVED JIB AND STAY CONNECTION.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 37,476, dated January 20, 1863.

To all whom, it may concern:

Be it known that I, JOHN E. SEAVEY, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of Kennepunkport, in the county of York and State of Maine, have invented an Improved Device or Mechanism for Connecting the Jib and Stay of a Navigable Vessel; and I do hereby declare the same to be fully described in the following specication, and represented in the accompanying drawings, of which- Figure l denotes a top view, Fig. 2 a longitudinal section, and Fig. 3 a side elevation, of my said invention.

It is a fact well known to seamen and others that the ordinary Inode of connecting a jib to a stay-that is, by means of a series of wooden hoops encompassing the stay and a rope passing around each of the hoops and roved through each grommet or eye of the iib-is liable to serious objection. The great strain brought to bear upon such hoops, especially during damp or stormy weather, when they are impregnated with water, causes more or less of them to become so warped or twisted as to render them practically useless, and besides, when such damage or a breakage occurs to any one of the hoops, it is very difficult either to supply a new one in its place or to repair the damaged one.

To obviate these and other difculties incident to the old method has been the object of lmy invention.

In carrying out my said invention or ilnprovement, I construct the whole of metal and in two parts, a shackle, A, and an annulus, B, and connect the two together by a joint-pin, O. The said annulus B, I form with a hingejoint, as seen at D, which is so arranged as to allow the part a of the annulus (when the latter is detached from the shackle A) to be opened outward, so as to permit the stay to be readily introduced into the said annulus. Furthermore, from the ends b b of such annulus two projections, c c, extend outward,.the combined width of such projections being equal to or a little less than that of the mouth of the shackle in which they are to be arranged.

The shackleA is composed of a at strip of metal bent into a form resembling the letter U, the said shackle being connected to the annulus or the projections c o by means of the screw-bolt C, which passes through the said shackle and projections and has a nut, d, applied to its smaller end.

One great advantage of my invention is the facility and ease with which it can be applied. This results from the peculiar construction and arrangement of its parts. Another advantage is that it not only allows the annulus to run freely upward or downward on the stay, but there is very little liability of its getting out of order.

Preparatory to connecting my said device to the jib and stay the screw-bolt C is to be withdrawn and the shackle and annulus are to be separated. The part aof the annulus is next to be turned backward and the stay introduced into the opening of the ring B. The part a is next to be turned back into its normal position. Next, one leg of the shackle is to be passed through a grommet or eye of the sail orjib. The shackle and the annulus are next to be fastened together by meansof the screw-bolt O, as shown in the drawings.

The shackle A is to be so connected to the annulus as to be capable of turning freely on the joint-pin O, either upward or downward, and thus accommodate itself to the jib or sail, so that the annulus may run freely on the stay.

I do not claim a sail-hank, consisting of a ring and eye made of two pieces of metal hinged at one extremity of each and provided with a screw-connection at the neck or junction of the ring and eye; nor do I claim a sailhank having its ring as well as its eye made in two separate parts, and with the eye fastened in a socket extending from the ring, as in both of these cases the eye could not turn on a pin supported by the ring, or, in other words, was not hinged to the ring, as is the case with the shackle of my jib and stay connector.

I claim- My improved jib and stay connector, the same consisting of the hinged annulus B and the shackle A, constructed, arranged, and combined together in manner and so as to operate as specified.

JOHN E. sEAvEY.

Witnesses S. E. BRYANT, WOODBURY SMITH.- 

